[Peace] efforts on all fronts

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Chemical Weapons Working Group
PO Box 467  Berea, KY  40403
(859) 986-0868  www.cwwg.org

** M E D I A    A D V I S O R Y **

for more information call:
Craig Williams: (859) 986-7565 or (859) 302-1103 (cell)
Brenda Lindell: (256) 236-1496 or (256)-225-8312 (cell)

What:   Press conference, parade and rally for safe disposal of 
chemical weapons and environmental justice in Anniston, Alabama.

Where:  Anniston, Alabama -- Anniston City Meeting Center, corner of 
17th St. and Noble St.

When:   Sunday, September 8, 2002   - - 2 PM  (CDT) Press Conference
    3 PM March -- approximately 1 mile -- followed by a Rally at 
Zinn Park. 

Who:    Hundreds of people expected from the Anniston community, the 
southeast region and communities all over the U.S.   Organizations 
joining the CWWG at the rally include the Southern Christian 
Leadership Conference, Alabama Sierra Club, United Church of Christ, 
Southern Organizing Committee, Alabama Environmental Council, Global 
Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives,  and many more.

    Press conference speakers include:

… Martin Luther King III and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Southern 
Christian Leadership Conference
… Brenda Lindell, Families Concerned About Nerve Gas Incineration, Anniston, 
AL
… Rev. Pamela Chaney, United Church of Christ Justice Program
… Craig Williams, Chemical Weapons Working Group Director
… Brenda Mugleston, Utah chemical weapons incinerator whistleblower

Why:   This Fall, the U.S. Army plans to begin burning lethal 
chemical weapons in the highly populated, highly contaminated 
community of Anniston, Alabama.  Chemical weapons incinerators in 
Utah and the Pacific are proven failures.  In the last two months, VX 
nerve agent was released at the Pacific incinerator, and workers at 
the Utah incinerator were exposed to GB nerve agent - shutting down 
both incinerators indefinitely.  The Alabama incinerator failed its 
trial burns.  Recent reckless modifications to that will create even 
greater risks to workers, the environment and the public.

    Opposition to chemical weapons incineration in Anniston has 
never been higher.  An incinerator will release additional 
contaminants into a community saturated with PCBs, lead and mercury 
from Monsanto during the 1960s and 70s.  Recently, the Anniston 
community was promised "gas masks" as protection from a possible 
chemical agent accident at the incinerator.      

    The goal of Sunday's event is to 1) draw attention to the 
flaws of the incineration program, 2) increase pressure to replace 
the Anniston incinerator furnaces with safer, non-incineration 
methods for destroying chemical weapons, demonstrated through the 
Pentagon's own alternative technology program, and 3) focus on the 
disproportionate impact the Army's incineration program has minority 
and poor communities across the country.

Directions: From I-20, take Anniston/Oxford exit 185.  Go north on 
Hwy. 21/431 until you reach 17th St.  Turn left on 17th and go two 
blocks to Noble St.

Visuals and themes:  Black and white families with children, civil 
rights and religious leaders, environmental activists marching 
together with signs and placards, balloons.  Rally will include giant 
puppet theater;  statements from citizens and justice organizations 
from the MLK pavilion in a scenic downtown  park.